First Day
by nycgrl
Summary: Post-GoF, mild OotP spoilers - Tonks fic! Ever wonder how Tonks found out and joined the Order of the Phoenix? Tonks' first day as an Auror!


Warning: Mild OotP spoilers.

I think after OotP, enough depressing, angsty fics have circulated. I hope this satisfies some of the die-hard Tonks fans out there :) I own nothing; Everything belongs to the wonderful J.K. Rowling. Please review if you have the time! Now without further ado, Tonks.

~

There she stood, Auror Extraordinaire. Well perhaps not Extraordinaire, yet, per say. But pretty darn great. So, Auror Pretty Darn Great.

On her first day as an Auror, Nymphadora Tonks stood outside the great oak doors that would lead inside to the Auror Headquarters. She nervously checked the pocket of her robe for her wand. Check.  Breath doesn't smell like Stinksap? Check.

Good, then. All that's left is opening the doors. Just open them. Tonks continued shuffling her feet for a few minutes. What if they don't like me? she fretted worriedly. She's too young or her hair is too pink (though something could be done about that) or… or… or… she's too delusional and talking to herself

Alright, opening the doors. They'll love her and welcome her with hugs and kisses and they'll be instant friends and go to the Three Broomsticks after work for Butterbeers. She nodded to herself. That's exactly what will happen.

She finally pushed the doors open, and her heart sank to find the room empty. She was early (Yes! Wait until her Mum hears about that!), she knew, but didn't expect that no one else will be there. In fact, she had expected all the more hugs and kisses for her eagerness.

No matter. They can love her when they arrive. She began wandering around the large room, stopping to attempt to straighten the crooked "Aurors Headquarters" sign, before she caught her reflection in a mirror.

She looked at herself critically. Perhaps her pink hair was… too pink? Blond? Too dumb. Brown? Too boring. Red? Too saucy (she wasn't sure what saucy was, but it didn't sound like a very Auror quality). 

She finally settled on black, before wandering around some more, and pausing at a picture of a smiling Sirius Black at someone's wedding ceremony. She peered closer at his face and sighed. It's hard to believe someone like him could ev—

"Can I help you?" a deep, formal voice came from behind her. She whirled around, looking very much like a child with her hand caught in the Chocolate Frog jar. She cleared her throat, and rubbed her hand against her robe before holding it out enthusiastically to the tall, black, bald wizard staring irritated at her.

"Wotcher! I'm Tonks, the new Auror. Though my first name isn't Tonks, it's actually—well it's too hideous to say, so please just call me—," she trailed off, becoming discouraged by his indifferent expression.

"That's fine," he said, shaking her hand hastily, "I'm Kingsley Shacklebolt." They stood there staring at each other for several minutes. Tonks noticed the Auror Headquarters was now filled with witches and wizards, some missing limbs, but all seemed quite grumpy at nine in the morning, despite their completeness of limbs or not.

Kingsley Shacklebolt finally broke the silence. "Well?" he said in his deep voice, looking expectantly at her. "Well, what?" she said, confused, before remembering something her mother said: never say what, say pardon. "Pardon?" she added, timidly. "Well," he began, talking as if to a very young child, "Shouldn't you be making the coffee?"

Tonks stared at him for a moment, wanting to scream at him, No, no, I'm an Auror, let's go catch Sirius Black! but she simply nodded and mumbled an, "Of course."

~

After managing to make the coffee (and being told disapprovingly that it was too weak), she also had the exciting opportunity to sort files, write a dictated report for someone who's quill wasn't working, and of course, clean up spills of her weak coffee. During all of which she tripped several times.

Tonks sat glumly in her cubicle (could it be called a cubicle? She was just sitting in a chair facing the back wall) and stared blankly ahead. She had decorated her wall with little notes to herself, taped up with Spell-O-Tape. She glanced at them, and tried to cheer herself up. "Don't upset Kingsley Shacklebolt," one said, "He doesn't seem kind when irritated." She snorted. He doesn't seem kind EVER. "Try to get up as little as possible," another note said, "Chances are, you'll trip and only show the Aurors that you're even less made to be an Auror than they already think."

She sighed, and glanced at a clock on the wall. It was half past nine at night. She took a quick look around to find all the Aurors had already gone home. She stood up wearily to leave, when her wand fell out of her pocket, and rolled beneath the chair.

Mumbling obscenities, she went down on her knees and crawled under the chair to get to for it. As she reached for her wand, she heard the door of the Auror headquarters opening and closing, the shuffle of footsteps and whispers of two men. She peered from under her chair and saw Kingsley Shacklebolt and a thin, balding redheaded man speaking quietly.

"… Headquarter issues… Order… resolved yet?" she heard Shacklebolt's deep voice say. "Actually," she heard bits of what the other man replied, "Sirius has offered… old Black manor… Grimmauld… very well protected… Dumbledore… Secret-Keeper…"

Tonks eyes widened in shock at the mention of Sirius Black. Kinsley Shacklebolt didn't seem to react as she had, and the other man… They knew where Black was! And they were hiding him, too! She decided she had to get out of there and tell someone of what she heard, and while thinking so, made a sudden movement and bumped her head against the chair.

The two men had stopped speaking and had looked into the corner she was in. She stood up slowly, not wanting them to walk over and find her crouched and cowering. She stared wide-eyed at them, and opened her mouth, wanting to scream for help, but instead the words that came out were, "Wotcher!"

The men looked at each other, and she continued quickly, "Er, just dropped my wand. Wands can be so tricky, huh? Well, I ought to go. It's late. And I told my Mum I'd write to her about my first day. SHE KNOWS WHERE I AM," Tonks said the last words almost hysterically, and then started walking toward the door as quickly as possible. Turn into a bird, a voice in her head cried, or a fly! Just get out!

"Impedimenta!" she heard Shacklebolt's voice cry, as she felt herself freeze. Her mind raced. Oh Merlin, they were going to kill her! And it was her first day too… Perhaps she really wasn't cut out to be an Auror. Not that it'd matter now. She was going to die. Vaguely, she heard angry talking in the background, and caught every word of it, as she was closer to the arguing men now.

"What'd you do that for? Now the poor girl's scared of us!" "I had to stop her somehow! She was about to tell!" "Well we could've calmed her down and explained—" "Explain? We have to modify her memory!" "Oh, Merlin, Kingsley, do you have to be so hasty? She might believe us—" "And what would that matter? That girl is a walking disaster! She's done nothing but trip all day!"

"Well, if you'd have given me some real work to do, maybe I wouldn't have to trip all day," she heard herself mumble. Shacklebolt and the red-haired man froze. She was unfrozen. 

She quickly raised her wand to them. "You two know where Black is," she said, trying to control her shaking voice, "You're hiding him. Why?" Tonks hadn't meant to blurt out the last part, but she was quite curious.

Shacklebolt had his hand gripped tightly around his wand, but the redheaded man looked kindly at her. "Please," he said, stepping closer to Tonks, "If you'll allow us to explain. What's your name?"

"Nymphadora Tonks. Though I prefer to be just called Tonks." Stop socializing with the enemy! she screamed at herself.

"Tonks," said the man thoughtfully, "Are you related to Theodore Tonks?" She nodded, and added, "He's my Dad."

"Oh," said the man cheerfully, "Ted's a fine man. Is he still working for the Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee?" 

"No," Tonks said, rolling her eyes, "Mum finally convinced him to retire and now they're vacationing in Bora Bora. They act like they're teenagers again, for Merlin's sake." She had almost forgotten where she was and with whom she was standing with, and remembering, gripped her wand tightly again.

"Bora Bora," said the man merrily, "Must be lovely. Molly would certainly like it—"

"Are you going to kill me? Because it's my first day as an Auror, and it'd be really unfortunate!" Tonks blurted. The man looked surprised. "Oh dear, no. Really, if you'll only hear us out—" Kingsley grunted but made no objections, "We're not trying to kill anyone. In fact, the opposite. Please sit down," he gestured to a chair, and with a flick of his wand a cup of hot tea appeared, "It's quite a long story."

~

Tonks stared at Arthur Weasley. Then she stared at the broken teacup in front of her, which, she was sure, any non-clumsy person would've dropped after hearing what she had just been told.

"So, let me get this straight," she began slowly, "Sirius Black is innocent and was framed by his ex-best friend who has now helped You-Know-Who regain power, as we have learned through Harry Potter, and a group of people who've earlier fought against You-Know-Who called the Order of the Phoenix has been reassembled to try to detect You-Know-Who's location under the unbelieving Ministry's nose led by an arrogant Fudge?"

Arthur nodded. "That's about it."

"And you want me to help you?" she continued staring shocked at him. Kingsley Shacklebolt, sitting on the left of Arthur made a noise that sounded off-putting, but Arthur nodded. "Yes, Tonks. We need all the help we can get. And Metamorphmagi are incredibly rare and probably helpful to our mission."

Tonks ran a hand through her now-pink-again spiky hair. "How do I know," she said, narrowing her eyes, "That you're not a bunch of loonies who are in fact evil, and hiding a very guilty Sirius Black?" She felt momentarily proud of herself for asking, what she thought, was a very clever question.

Arthur shrugged. "We can't prove it. You'll just have to believe us and Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter." Tonks looked at Arthur's sincere eyes and warm smile. 

She stared down at her teacup again. They seemed to be telling the truth. A farfetched and very frightening truth, but heck, that's how truths seem to go. If they had wanted to kill her, they could've done so easily by now, as they have surely seen her stumble with her wand. And she did trust Professor Dumbledore, who had been the only professor at Hogwarts who'd call her by Tonks, as she exasperatedly requested of everyone. Though she supposed, you can't judge a person by that.

So if that was the truth, then? That You-Know-Who was back. She shook in fear at the thought of it. Her Dad was a Muggle-born. Oh Merlin, what if You-Know-Who got him? What if she lost her Dad? She couldn't let that happen. She just couldn't. She blinked and looked back up at Arthur.

"Alright," she said. "I'll help you."

~

They had Apparated onto a Muggle street (Grimmauld Place, Tonks noted as she passed the street sign). They stood on the dark sidewalk, lit only by the moon and a few stars, between 11 and 13 Grimmauld Place.

"Er, Arthur," she said, tapping Arthur on the shoulder, "I don't think 12 Grimmauld Place exists." Arthur looked befuddled too, and turned to Kingsley. "You've owled Albus, haven't you? About the Headquarters and Tonks, too." Kingsley nodded, answering, "He answered he'll be with us shortly to—" and before Kinglsey had finished speaking, a loud cracking sound, and before them, appeared in brilliant purple robes, bearded and all, Albus Dumbledore.

"Well, good evening, Kingsley, Arthur, Tonks." He nodded at each of them. He then turned to Tonks and stared thoughtfully at her. 

After a moment's thought, he looked at her, and smiled warmly, his blue eyes twinkling. "Welcome to the Order, Tonks." Tonks smiled back weakly. "Thanks, Professor."

Dumbledore turned back to Kingsley and Arthur. "I've written the location of the Headquarters for Remus. Be very careful whom you reveal it to. Memorize the address. The Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix may be found at 12 Grimmauld Place, London."

Tonks looked curiously at him for a moment, before something else caught her eye. Between numbers 11 and 13, a door had appeared, followed by grimy walls, and grimier windows. Tonsk stared at this house, stunned at the sight.

"Have a good night," Dumbledore said with a mysterious smile, and Disapparated with a crack.

The men had started walking toward the door, and Tonks ran after them to catch up. After they opened the door and entered the house, Arthur called out, "Hello? Anyone here?" Tonks looked at the insides of 12 Grimmauld Place, which weren't much cleaner and cheerful than the outside.

She turned slightly to look further (as her family had never been welcome in the Black home—not that she felt like she was missing anything now) and banged her shin against something and tripped, creating a loud clanging. Arthur and Kingsley gazed at her and shook their heads. "Sorry," she mumbled, as Kingsley helped her up. She leaned over to pick up—an umbrella stand. She gave it a murderous stare.

Suddenly Apparating sounds and rumbling down the creaky stairs could be heard, and warm, loud greetings being shouted at Arthur and Kingsley by a group of redheaded children. Arthur and Kingsley both smiled at the sight of the children, and Arthur quickly excused himself to talk to four people who were standing at the corner, and eyeing Tonks curiously. 

The children, who had just noticed her, looked at her inquisitively also, and he could see two older boys try to slip a piece of string that wandered over to where the five adults were standing in the corner. Who were now walking toward her.

Don't panic, she thought. Just smile, and nod and say Wotcher! "Alright, children," cried a red-headed woman, "Up to bed. NOW." The children mumbled and groaned and complained but complied after taking peeks at Tonks once more. Tonks ran her hand through her hair in an attempt to make it seem more presentable.

"Tonks," Arthur said cheerily, "This is Molly, my wife," he nodded toward the plump woman who had yelled at the children earlier, "Alaster Moody, an ex-Auror," he pointed toward a man with uneven eyes and a chunk of his nose missing, who needed no introduction, "Remus Lupin," he gestured toward a gray-haired man with a young, but lined face "And Sirius Black." Tonks gave a small smile to her innocent ex-convict second cousin.

Tonks was speechless for a moment. Then finally, "Wotcher," she croaked. This seemed to have been the magical word they'd all been waiting for, and everyone grinned, excepting Mad-Eye Moody. 

"Dear, you must be hungry," said Molly, taking her hand, "Let me fix you something to eat."

They all walked toward what she assumed was the kitchen, and Remus Lupin, walking beside her, looked at her pleasantly and said, "So I hear you're an Auror?" Tonks grinned and shrugged.

"It's my first day, actually."

~

Sorry for the incredibly long fic. If you've made it to this sentence without getting bored and wandering off, I salute you.

PLEASE REVIEW! I am nothing without reviews. If not for me, then for Tonks *points*


End file.
